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If the Edmonton Eskimos can salvage one thing from a three-win season, it may just be the emergence of a long-lost return game.

Well, OK. Behind quarterback Mike Reilly emerging as a full-fledged starter in the league and a legitimate leader on the team, of course.

But don’t discount the steps this team has taken in 2013 on special-teams returns, which is an area that has been severely lacking since the long-past glory days of Henry ‘Gizmo’ Williams.

While there is still too far to go before someone even comes close to any of his dozen team records on both kickoff and punt returns, the baby steps the team has taken recently are even more pronounced amid this hopeless season.

“We’ve been searching all year to make certain that we have a viable return game,” said Eskimos head coach Kavis Reed. “I always joke with the offensive guys: ‘I know when we’re returning well because you’re not complaining about field position.’ And we haven’t had that issue in the last four or five weeks.

“We are thankful for the guys who are blocking for those guys are understanding that we have explosive guys back there.”

Only it hasn’t just been this year. Nor has it only been during Reed’s three seasons as head coach. The return game has been a sticking point for the Eskimos since before their last Grey Cup in 2005.

“We’ve been searching for that answer for a while,” Reed said. “It’s been one of those anomalous things where prior to that, it’s had a tremendous amount of returners. A wealth of returners.”

A list easily topped by one name: Henry Gizmo Williams, who dominated the league for a decade.

“When Giz retired, we knew it was going to be a tremendous void,” Reed said. “But a number of guys like Winston October and Skyler Green have stepped in and did a tremendous job, but in abbreviated times. There hasn’t been that one guy.”

Enter Jamal Miles. While he’s not yet the ‘one’ guy, he’s the next guy to get a shot at becoming it.

The five-foot-nine, 188-pounder out of Arizona State — where he set a school record on kickoff returns — signed in Edmonton as a free agent a month ago to little fanfare. But in the four games since, he has returned 12 kickoffs for 230 yards and 18 punts for 190.

His 420 combined return yards already sit him third on the team behind mainstays Hugh Charles and Joe Burnett, while Miles’s 10.6-yard average on punt returns leads the entire league.

“I don’t really pay attention to the yards. I didn’t even know that until you just told me,” said Miles, who also averages a respectable 19.2 kickoff-return yards. “I just try to give the team the best possible way to score.”

And it starts with setting up the offence with a manageable distance to the goal-line — the shorter, the better.

“I’m starting to feel more comfortable back there, just trying to get the team in good field position and will hopefully break one, one of these times,” said Miles. “The team does a good job of making me feel at home. Everybody is like my big brothers, they’re out here taking care of me.”

The Eskimos hope for consistent kick return game for first time since Gizmo days

If the Edmonton Eskimos can salvage one thing from a three-win season, it may just be the emergence of a long-lost return game.

Well, OK. Behind quarterback Mike Reilly emerging as a full-fledged starter in the league and a legitimate leader on the team, of course.

But don’t discount the steps this team has taken in 2013 on special-teams returns, which is an area that has been severely lacking since the long-past glory days of Henry ‘Gizmo’ Williams.

While there is still too far to go before someone even comes close to any of his dozen team records on both kickoff and punt returns, the baby steps the team has taken recently are even more pronounced amid this hopeless season.

“We’ve been searching all year to make certain that we have a viable return game,” said Eskimos head coach Kavis Reed. “I always joke with the offensive guys: ‘I know when we’re returning well because you’re not complaining about field position.’ And we haven’t had that issue in the last